What do science fiction and fantasy books have in store for you this fall? There are new fantasy series by Tad Williams and Jacqueline Carey. A brand new Culture novel by Iain M. Banks. Collaborations between Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross, and Larry Niven and Gregory Benford. A classic Gene Wolfe novel. A massive Ursula K. Le Guin story collection. And much, much more.

Here's our complete guide to this fall's most exciting science fiction and fantasy book releases!

September

Blackwood by Gwenda Bond (Angry Robot/Strange Chemistry)
Bond's debut young-adult novel takes place on Roanoake, where the mysterious disappearance of 114 people is just a tourist fable — until 114 people disappear in the present day, and two 17-year-olds may be the only ones who can figure it out.

The Rapture of the Nerds by Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross (Tor)
This is a fix-up novel made out of a series of short stories, set at the end of the 21st century — only a billion people remain on Earth, the rest of the population having become posthuman and swarmed (literally) across the solar system. But who's going to save the remaining humans from being spammed with "get evolved quick" schemes?

The great thing about Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim novels is, there's no foot-dragging.…
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The Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad Williams (Daw)
The Shadowmarch author turns his hand to urban fantasy, about a flawed angel named Bobby Dollar who judges newly deceased souls — until a soul goes missing. Adam Whitehead said this novel "moves like a whippet with its tail on fire." Read an excerpt here.

Slow Apocalypse by John Varley (Ace)
The Steel Beach author creates a thriller in which a scientist develops a compound that turns all petroleum solid — starting with an Iraqi oil field, but soon enough the whole world's oil supply.

October

The Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M. Banks (Orbit)
A new Culture novel is always grounds for major celebration — but this time, Banks is delving into the origins of his star-spanning super-advanced civilization, and it could be the best Culture book in forever.

The Twelve by Justin Cronin (Ballantine)
The second book in Cronin's Passage trilogy. This time around, we see more of the mayhem in the present day as the "Virals" emerge — plus the desperate attempt to vanquish the Twelve, 100 years from now.

Dark Currents by Jacqueline Carey (Penguin/Roc)
Daisy Johanssen is an enforcer for the Norse goddess Hel, in this new urban fantasy novel by the author of the Kushiel books. One of the fall's best books, according to Publishers Weekly and us.

Space is Just a Starry Night by Tanith Lee (Aqueduct)
A brand new collection of short fiction by the great fantasy author — and the title is apparently a quote from the song Dayna sings in that Blake's 7 episode that Lee wrote, "Sarcophagus." More Tanith Lee is always good news.

Bowl of Heaven by Larry Niven and Gregory Benford (Tor)
In this first collaboration by the two hard science fiction masters, a group of young struggling artists gather in a cafe and debate the meaning of youth... or maybe not. Actually, a human expedition to another star system is interrupted when they discover a massive, huge bowl-shaped object "half-englobing" a star — which is on a direct path to the same star system as the humans intend to visit.

November

Red Country by Joe Abercrombie (Orbit)
The author of The Heroes is back with another bloodthirsty, gritty fantasy novel. Sky South, a young hero with a bloody past, is getting her Liam Neeson on after someone has kidnapped her brother and sister, with just her cowardly stepfather Lamb for company. Sky South will hunt you down. And she will find you. And she will... you know the rest.

The Diviners by Libba Bray (Little, Brown)
Evie gets to leave her small hometown and go to New York City — but unfortunately, she's stuck living with her Uncle Will, proprietor of The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult — referred as "The Museum of the Creepy Crawlies." To make matters worse, there's a rash of supernatural murders — and Evie's secret power may make her the only person who can get to the bottom of things.

Captain Vorpatril's Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
Yes, it's a brand new Vorkosigan novel! This time, we're following Miles' cousin Ivan Vorpatril, a staff officer to a Barrayaran admiral. Ivan's got a cozy life — until he's asked to protect a young woman who's been targeted by a criminal syndicate. And it appears she has some secrets that could strike at the heart of an important Barrayaran family.

The Fractal Prince by Hannu Rajaniemi (Tor)
The sequel to Rajaniemi's breakout hit The Quantum Thief — and once again the dizzying ideas include a physicist receiving a paper that's way ahead of anything we have now, and a thief trying to break into a Schrodinger's Box.

Errantry: Strange Stories by Elizabeth Hand (Small Beer Press)
When you see the name "Elizabeth Hand" and the words "strange stories" next to each other, you should run to your local bookstore to investigate. The Shirley Jackson Award-winning author shows you the strangeness of everyday life, including your unbelievably odd neighbors and creepy coworkers.

The Godspeaker Trilogy by Karen Miller (Orbit)
We're really excited that Orbit is finally putting out omnibus editions of Karen Miller's great epic fantasy works — and especially the Godspeaker Trilogy, which is one of the most fascinating trilogies we've read in the past decade. The first two books tell the story of two very different women achieving political power in an often terrifying, unstable world — and then the third book puts the two women on a collision course.

A Red Sun Also Rises by Mark Hodder (Pyr Books)
The Spring-Heeled Jack author tells the story of a Vicar in a sleepy town who meets a hunchback named Clarissa... and then they somehow encounter Jack the Ripper, and get transported to another planet, one with twin suns and an alien species who are master mimics. Yes, it sounds completely demented.

Peace by Gene Wolfe (Tor)
This classic novel about a bitter old man whose imagination turns out to have the power to reshape reality is finally getting a brand new edition, with an afterword by Neil Gaiman.

Great North Road by Peter F. Hamilton (Del Rey)
It's a hundred years from now, and we've solved most of our problems — we've discovered near-instantaneous travel across light years, and fixed our energy shortages and fixed the environment. These amazing advances are mostly in the hands of the all-powerful North family, who are made up of generations of clones. Unfortunately, as Multiplicity taught us, the more generations of clones you make, the more problems tend to crop up.

The Folly of the World by Jesse Bullington (Orbit)
The author of The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart is already winning praise for his strange story of a devastating flood and its aftermath, in 1421. Into the flood sail a crazed thug, a ruthless conman, and their companion, a feral girl.